Who Inherits The Legacy of CPN?
By Yuba Nath Lamsal
It is going to be 50 years since the communist party was founded in Nepal. All communist groups are expected to mark this eventful year in their own way. The CPN-UML has already announced to observe the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of Nepal with fun and fanfare in October this year. For this, a committee headed by party’s senior vice chairman Bamdev Gautam has already been formed.
The Communist Party of Nepal was founded on April 28, 1949. The party was announced in Calcutta by Puspa Lal Shrestha, Niranjan Govinda Vaidya, Narayanbilas Joshi and Nrbahadur Karmacharya. Puspa Lal Shrestha was chosen as the founder general secretary of the party. Puspa Lal, in one of his write ups, has said that they decided to include Moti Devi, who was not present at the time of the formation of the party, as the founding member of the party. On the same day of the formation of the party, a manifesto of the Communist Party of Nepal was issued outlining the programmes and priorities of the Nepali revolution.
When the communist party was formed, Nepal was under Rana family rule. The anti-Rana movement had been gaining momentum and the Nepali Congress was the leading force to mobilize the people against the Ranas. Since the party was formed during the period of Rana regime, its primary objective was to overthrow the Rana‘s oligarchic rule and establish multi-party democracy. However, it slong-term goal was to establish a communist state where the power would be at the hand of the proletariats led by the Communist Party.
Although formed with revolutionary zeal and goal, the communist party remained weak for some years to come. It was partly due partly to the inability to expand organization in the initial phase and party owing to a ban imposed by the government. The communist party remained weak in terms of organizational hold at the grassroots level for some years. Soon after its formation, the party was caught in ideological differences among its leaders, which ruined its activities. The poor performance of the party in the first general election held in 1959 was the testament of political and ideological conflict among its leaders. The Communist party won merely four seats out of the 109 total seats of the Lower House of Parliament.
The ideological differences further deepened after the king Mahendra’s coup that disbanded the elected government and banned parties. Two sets of opinions appeared within the party with one faction supporting the king’s authoritarian move while the other condemning it. A faction led by Keshar Jung Rayamajhi supported the king’s move while Puspa Lal and his group dubbed the king’s move as an anti-democratic and reactionary action. Puspa Lal proposed decisive movement to establish a democratic system in Nepal.
This was the beginning of the split in the communist party. In the years to come, the split in the communist party continued. As a result, we have more than a dozen parties with the name of communist party. Although we have many splinter communist factions currently claiming to be the mainstream of the communist movement in Nepal, two communist parties are the major forces to reckon with in terms of organizational strength and support in the grassroots level. They are the CPN-UML and UCPN-Maoist.
They are two identical twins—be it their origin, strategy, organizational development and attitude of their leaders. The CPN-UML carries the legacy of “Jhapa Andolan” in which several people were killed in the name of ‘class enemy annihilation’. The beginning of this party was violent with resorting to killing. This group later came to be known as the CPN-ML, which gave up the armed insurgency following the brutal suppression by the government. When its so-called armed insurgency was suppressed by the state, the CPN-ML then focused on expansion of organization. Coming to late 80s, this party had a national presence with strong organizational strength. The two-line struggle that had long been in practice within the organization came to an end during its fourth congress in which the party abandoned the path of revolution and adopted the peaceful approach to acquire political freedom, which in other words was multi-party democracy .
The CPN-ML had been formed as some young revolutionaries were dissatisfied with policies, approach and programmes of the Puspa Lal led communist party. In the initial phase, the CPN-ML condemned the Puspa Lal’s policy of multi-party democracy dubbing him a ‘revisionist and betrayer” but ultimately this group came to embrace the same policy Puspa Lal had championed long ago. With this approach and policy, the CPN-ML participated and played crucial role in the 1990 democratic movement as a major constituent of the United Left Front. Soon after the success of the1990 democratic movement, the CPN-Marxist headed by the Manmohan Adhikari and CPN-ML led by Madan Bhandari were unified to form CPN-UML, which gave up the revolutionary romanticism and embraced the parliamentary path. The UML adopted the ‘ Janatako Bahudaliya Janabad’ (People’s Multi-Party democracy of PMDP) proposed by Madan Bhandari as a guiding political doctrine, which, in essence, is totally western model of liberal democracy.
With UML going the parliamentary way, the other communist group, until then far smaller than the UML, turned to jungle war renouncing the parliamentary path. The party that had won just nine parliamentary seats out of the total 205 in the general election held in 1991. This party along with other fringe communist groups formed a Maoist party that launched armed insurgency to arrive at the present stage. In the present scenario, this party is the largest and strongest as it has won the largest number of seats in the Constituent Assembly Election. Arriving at this stage, the Maoist party, too, has traveled a tumultuous political journey. Already exhausted from the decade-long guerilla war, this party has come to accept the peaceful politics as a means to go to power. This party has now been back to the political path it once renounced. The Maoists thought that the parliamentary politics was unsuitable for true communists and took up arms with the belief that ‘power comes only through the barrel of guns’. Coming to this stage, the Maoists transformed from the ‘ Prachanda Path’ to ‘ Democracy of 21st century’, which is yet another transformation from orthodox communism to modern social democratic approach.
The ideological vacillation has been the marked characteristics of the Nepalese communists—be it the Maoists, CPN-UML or the other fringe communist groups. This is the main reason behind the split in the communist parties. But lately, there has been a process of reunifying the fragmented movement. In this process, both the UML and the Maoists are trying to bring other communists into their fold.
But the fundamental question remains far from resolved. The question is: who represents the legacy of the communist party that was formed fifty years ago. Even its founders have been divided. Puspa Lal was once condemned by both the CPN-UML and the Maoists. The UML has now reinstated Puspa Lal as a true communist and revolutionary.
On ideological ground, these two mainstream communist parties are in the process of demonizing one another. The CPN-UML has dubbed the Maoist party as unrealistic and ultra-leftist deviation, whereas the Maoists term the UML as a party that has degenerated into rightist and revisionist deviation. But none of them are in their original political ideology. Their ideology and approaches are just a means for going to power. The UML thought that armed revolution was not suitable more than three decades ago. The Maoists have realized it just recently.
The political battle between these two communist groups at present is not based on ideology but on the approaches to acquire and retain power. One thing is sure that the two strong communist groups may not be in existence for the long time. Now the Maoists and the CPN-UML are both in the strong position in the grassroots level in terms of their organization and number of cadres. But this position would not last long. One has to replace the other. In the battle for existence, it is not sure which party would outdo the other. Only time would show which would carry the legacy of the mainstream communist party. That would be final, perhaps, in the next general election.
It is going to be 50 years since the communist party was founded in Nepal. All communist groups are expected to mark this eventful year in their own way. The CPN-UML has already announced to observe the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of Nepal with fun and fanfare in October this year. For this, a committee headed by party’s senior vice chairman Bamdev Gautam has already been formed.
The Communist Party of Nepal was founded on April 28, 1949. The party was announced in Calcutta by Puspa Lal Shrestha, Niranjan Govinda Vaidya, Narayanbilas Joshi and Nrbahadur Karmacharya. Puspa Lal Shrestha was chosen as the founder general secretary of the party. Puspa Lal, in one of his write ups, has said that they decided to include Moti Devi, who was not present at the time of the formation of the party, as the founding member of the party. On the same day of the formation of the party, a manifesto of the Communist Party of Nepal was issued outlining the programmes and priorities of the Nepali revolution.
When the communist party was formed, Nepal was under Rana family rule. The anti-Rana movement had been gaining momentum and the Nepali Congress was the leading force to mobilize the people against the Ranas. Since the party was formed during the period of Rana regime, its primary objective was to overthrow the Rana‘s oligarchic rule and establish multi-party democracy. However, it slong-term goal was to establish a communist state where the power would be at the hand of the proletariats led by the Communist Party.
Although formed with revolutionary zeal and goal, the communist party remained weak for some years to come. It was partly due partly to the inability to expand organization in the initial phase and party owing to a ban imposed by the government. The communist party remained weak in terms of organizational hold at the grassroots level for some years. Soon after its formation, the party was caught in ideological differences among its leaders, which ruined its activities. The poor performance of the party in the first general election held in 1959 was the testament of political and ideological conflict among its leaders. The Communist party won merely four seats out of the 109 total seats of the Lower House of Parliament.
The ideological differences further deepened after the king Mahendra’s coup that disbanded the elected government and banned parties. Two sets of opinions appeared within the party with one faction supporting the king’s authoritarian move while the other condemning it. A faction led by Keshar Jung Rayamajhi supported the king’s move while Puspa Lal and his group dubbed the king’s move as an anti-democratic and reactionary action. Puspa Lal proposed decisive movement to establish a democratic system in Nepal.
This was the beginning of the split in the communist party. In the years to come, the split in the communist party continued. As a result, we have more than a dozen parties with the name of communist party. Although we have many splinter communist factions currently claiming to be the mainstream of the communist movement in Nepal, two communist parties are the major forces to reckon with in terms of organizational strength and support in the grassroots level. They are the CPN-UML and UCPN-Maoist.
They are two identical twins—be it their origin, strategy, organizational development and attitude of their leaders. The CPN-UML carries the legacy of “Jhapa Andolan” in which several people were killed in the name of ‘class enemy annihilation’. The beginning of this party was violent with resorting to killing. This group later came to be known as the CPN-ML, which gave up the armed insurgency following the brutal suppression by the government. When its so-called armed insurgency was suppressed by the state, the CPN-ML then focused on expansion of organization. Coming to late 80s, this party had a national presence with strong organizational strength. The two-line struggle that had long been in practice within the organization came to an end during its fourth congress in which the party abandoned the path of revolution and adopted the peaceful approach to acquire political freedom, which in other words was multi-party democracy .
The CPN-ML had been formed as some young revolutionaries were dissatisfied with policies, approach and programmes of the Puspa Lal led communist party. In the initial phase, the CPN-ML condemned the Puspa Lal’s policy of multi-party democracy dubbing him a ‘revisionist and betrayer” but ultimately this group came to embrace the same policy Puspa Lal had championed long ago. With this approach and policy, the CPN-ML participated and played crucial role in the 1990 democratic movement as a major constituent of the United Left Front. Soon after the success of the1990 democratic movement, the CPN-Marxist headed by the Manmohan Adhikari and CPN-ML led by Madan Bhandari were unified to form CPN-UML, which gave up the revolutionary romanticism and embraced the parliamentary path. The UML adopted the ‘ Janatako Bahudaliya Janabad’ (People’s Multi-Party democracy of PMDP) proposed by Madan Bhandari as a guiding political doctrine, which, in essence, is totally western model of liberal democracy.
With UML going the parliamentary way, the other communist group, until then far smaller than the UML, turned to jungle war renouncing the parliamentary path. The party that had won just nine parliamentary seats out of the total 205 in the general election held in 1991. This party along with other fringe communist groups formed a Maoist party that launched armed insurgency to arrive at the present stage. In the present scenario, this party is the largest and strongest as it has won the largest number of seats in the Constituent Assembly Election. Arriving at this stage, the Maoist party, too, has traveled a tumultuous political journey. Already exhausted from the decade-long guerilla war, this party has come to accept the peaceful politics as a means to go to power. This party has now been back to the political path it once renounced. The Maoists thought that the parliamentary politics was unsuitable for true communists and took up arms with the belief that ‘power comes only through the barrel of guns’. Coming to this stage, the Maoists transformed from the ‘ Prachanda Path’ to ‘ Democracy of 21st century’, which is yet another transformation from orthodox communism to modern social democratic approach.
The ideological vacillation has been the marked characteristics of the Nepalese communists—be it the Maoists, CPN-UML or the other fringe communist groups. This is the main reason behind the split in the communist parties. But lately, there has been a process of reunifying the fragmented movement. In this process, both the UML and the Maoists are trying to bring other communists into their fold.
But the fundamental question remains far from resolved. The question is: who represents the legacy of the communist party that was formed fifty years ago. Even its founders have been divided. Puspa Lal was once condemned by both the CPN-UML and the Maoists. The UML has now reinstated Puspa Lal as a true communist and revolutionary.
On ideological ground, these two mainstream communist parties are in the process of demonizing one another. The CPN-UML has dubbed the Maoist party as unrealistic and ultra-leftist deviation, whereas the Maoists term the UML as a party that has degenerated into rightist and revisionist deviation. But none of them are in their original political ideology. Their ideology and approaches are just a means for going to power. The UML thought that armed revolution was not suitable more than three decades ago. The Maoists have realized it just recently.
The political battle between these two communist groups at present is not based on ideology but on the approaches to acquire and retain power. One thing is sure that the two strong communist groups may not be in existence for the long time. Now the Maoists and the CPN-UML are both in the strong position in the grassroots level in terms of their organization and number of cadres. But this position would not last long. One has to replace the other. In the battle for existence, it is not sure which party would outdo the other. Only time would show which would carry the legacy of the mainstream communist party. That would be final, perhaps, in the next general election.
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